Umm Kulthoum makes an appearance in the logo, at least on www.google.com.eg. Why today? Some say it's her birthday (4 May 1900 to be exact, although no one knows for sure.) If that's the case, she shares it with another important Egyptian: Hosni Mubarak. Happy 82nd, ya rayiss.

Issandr El Amrani is a Cairo-based writer and consultant. His reporting and commentary on the Middle East and North Africa has appeared in The Economist, London Review of Books, Financial Times, The National, The Guardian, Time and other publications. He also publishes one of the longest-running blog in the region, www.arabist.net.

Via AvantCaire via Fustat.
Pretty impressive heavy metal rendition of the classic Umm Kulthoum song "Enta Omri" considering this is an amateur recording of a live gig. The studio version could be quite polished, and the song lends itself quite well to melodic metal. They would have to shorten considerable to the ultimate original version, which lasts about an hour (but it's an hour extraordinarily well-spent.)
Umm Kulthoum's Enta Omri [61.2MB]